With its compact design, fast performance and superb scan quality, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 is our top pick for portable scanners.

Review

The smallest scanner the company has ever made, Fujitsu's $199 ScanSnap S1100, fits perfectly into tight spaces and has a unique paper output tray that guides documents over the top of the scanner back to the user. And with some of the fastest scanning speeds in our roundup, the ScanSnap S1100 has everything a road warrior needs.

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Design

At 12.2 ounces and measuring 10.7 x 1.9 x 1.3 inches, Fujitsu's ScanSnap S1100 is slightly heavier than the 11.6-ounce NeatReceipts NM-1000, but slightly smaller than Plustek's MobileOffice S410 (10.8 x 1.9 x 1.3 inches). We were easily able to pack the S1100 into a messenger bag with plenty of room to fit our notebook.

Coated in a matte black finish, the ScanSnap S1100 has a unique wedge shape up front and a rounded backside that makes room for the scanner's paper output. On the right is a large blue combination Scan/Stop button and indicator light.

Pull down the S1100's faceplate to reveal the scanner's document feeder. Pull back on the lid to open the scanner's vertical output tray. With the output open, paper fed into the scanner is automatically pushed up above the S1100 and back to you, allowing for easier scanning in tight spaces.

Opening the document feeder tray and output tray reveals the ScanSnap's silver-coated shelf. Lift this to clear out any paper jams. For thicker sheets of paper or business cards, you can close the vertical output tray and simply pass the document through the S1100 as you would with any other scanner.

While we liked the ScanSnap S1100's design, the document feeder tray and the output tray didn't feel as sturdy as we would like.

Setup and Ease of Use

To set up the ScanSnap we first had to install the appropriate drivers and software from the included install disk to our Lenovo IdeaPad V470 notebook (the S1100 works with Macs, too). Once the software was installed, we then connected the S1100 to our notebook and we were ready to go.

To turn on the scanner, you just open the feeder tray. The scanner's blue indicator light will glow whenever the tray is open, letting you know the scanner is ready. Close the tray and the scanner goes into a sleep mode.

The ScanSnap S1100 comes with three main pieces of software, including ScanSnap Manager, ScanSnap Organizer and CardMinder, in addition to Evernote for Windows, Scan to SharePoint and ABBYY FineReader. ScanSnap Manager, as its name suggests, allows you to manage how the S1100 scans certain documents. You can select the application you would like the S1100 to scan documents to, the scan quality and how the scanned files are saved, as well as other options. ScanSnap Manager also allows you to set profiles for each application used for scanning documents including CardMinder, ABBYY and Evernote, as well as a standard profile, among others.

ScanSnap Organizer serves as a place for you to organize your scanned files and convert PDF files into searchable documents. You can also send previously scanned files to different applications (such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint) where you can edit them. Overall the software was easy to navigate thanks to its Microsoft Office-style layout.

CardMinder, Fujitsu's equivalent to BizCard, also performed well, although it was unable to extract text from business cards with predominantly black backgrounds. Like the other portable scanners in our roundup, we were also able to use the S1100 to scan documents to the cloud including to our Evernote accounts and Google Docs.

Performance

We were able to scan a single-sided black and white document using the ScanSnap S1100 in 9.4 seconds, That's quicker than the NeatReceipts 24.4 seconds, as well as the Plustek MobileOffice S410's 12.8 seconds. Business cards took just 3.5 seconds, miles ahead of the Epson WorkForce DS-30's 9.3 seconds, but slower than the MobileOffice S410's 2.9 seconds.

Scanning an 8.5 x 11-inch color photo took an average of 28.9 seconds. That's second to only the Xerox Mobile Scanner's 13.5-second scan time.

When scanning a black-and-white document, the ScanSnap performed very well, displaying clear text although the ink had a slightly hazy look to it. Color scans, however, looked excellent. An 8.5 x 11-inch color photo of a vineyard was the most accurate of any scanner in our roundup. Blues were bright and crisp, while the rows of green grapevines were looked rich and colorful. That said, Canon's larger imageFormula P-215 Scan-tini offered scans with significantly richer colors.

Like most portable scanners, the ScanSnap S1100 doesn't come equipped with a duplexer. To get around this, the S1100 includes a continuous scanning feature, which lets you scan one side of a document at a time and save them as one file.

We were, however, disappointed to see that the ScanSnapp S1100 did not work with the standard TWAIN imaging driver, which limits the number of third-party programs that can work with the scanner.

Warranty

The ScanSnap S1100 comes with a one-year limited warranty through Fujitsu's Depot service program, which includes parts, labor, and one-way shipping back to the user. So if your scanner breaks down, you'll have to pay half of the round-trip shipping to get it fixed. You can also sign up for Fujitsu's extended care programs.

Verdict

Fujitu's $199 ScanSnap S1100 is great for mobile professionals with limited space in need of a fast, but high-quality scanner. Colors were accurate and bright, while black-and-white documents were clear. And although we were disappointed with the lack of TWAIN driver support, the S1100 more than redeems itself with its stellar performance.

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Author Bio

Dan Howley, Senior Writer

A newspaper man at heart, Dan Howley wrote for Greater Media Newspapers before joining Laptopmag.com. He also served as a news editor with ALM Media's Law Technology News, and he holds a B.A. in English from The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.